site.btaCentral Government Signs Cooperation Agreement with Association of Municipalities

Central Government Signs Cooperation Agreement with Association of Municipalities


Sofia, December 3 (BTA) - Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said on
Wednesday that the central government will try to help every
mayor and every municipality. He recalled that the government of
 former Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski (May 2013-August 2014)
dealt a blow to municipalities as they were made to bear the
impact of financial corrections to EU-supported programmes.
Borissov promised help to mitigate the effect of the
corrections.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the annual conference of the
National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of
Bulgaria (NAMRB), held in Sofia. Borissov and NAMRB Board
Chairman Todor Popov signed an agreement on cooperation between
the organization and the Council of Ministers.

The Prime Minister said that all cabinet members will attend the
 second day of the conference in order to discuss EU-backed
municipal projects and to consider help for every municipality.

Borissov said that earlier in the day the Council of Ministers
decided to arrange for municipal governments to gain access to
their deposits with the ailing Corporate Commercial Bank.

He noted that 65 million leva has been allocated to aid animal
producers.

Popov said that the financial decentralization of municipalities
 and the need to better absorb EU funding are the two main
demands of NAMRB. Popov said that 2014 has been a tough year due
 to a spate of floods across Bulgaria and the financial
corrections to EU-supported programmes.

Finishing the 2007-2013 programming period (whose implementation
 has extended beyond 2013) has presented a challenge to
Bulgarian municipalities, Popov said. He expressed regret that
2014 has been a zero year in terms of EU aid in the new
seven-year programming period, and that 2015 will also be a zero
 year. It is becoming ever more difficult to make EU-financed
projects sustainable, he complained.

Admitting that the government has earmarked more money for
municipalities in 2015, Popov noted that local authorities will
not get enough funding for education, road rehabilitation and
flood damage prevention. All municipalities will receive larger
equalizing subsidies, more money towards capital expenses and
more funding for wintertime road cleaning, he said.

Popov stated that the central government seems to have forgotten
 about the 30,000 km of municipal roads which carry twice as
much traffic as national roads and need maintenance. It should
also be remembered that municipalities ought to benefit from
water-and-sewerage projects, he added. He finds it imperative to
 increase the financial support for municipal administrations,
because salaries in the sector have not been adjusted for six
years.

The most needed reforms have been delayed again, Popov said,
pointing to NAMRB's proposal that 2 percentage points of the
personal income tax should flow into municipal coffers.